One fear many working women have is that once they retire, they will lose their purpose in life. Or maybe they just fear being bored with all their free time. Well, I am in full swing retirement mode (officially 4 years) and I’ll admit, I haven’t had time to be bored.
I’ve dabbled in activities like working part-time riding horses on the beach and teaching yoga. I’ve taken classes – 500 hours of yoga teacher training. I’ve moved to Florida and taken a few trips. I’ve read lots of books, played card games and learned how to line dance. I also wake up most days at 6:30 am to play pickleball.
My retirement life is full and active, but I like to keep challenging myself. Trying something new, is one way to keep your mind engaged and keep growing. So, it would seem the next new thing for me to try would be finding a hobby, like crafting.
I did try knitting, but had no luck. I wrote a book and continued writing in my blog (thank you reader for your support). I tried gardening here, but it’s too hot most of the year in Florida.
So what to do…
I’ve always loved the beach.
One day I went to a “shell show” here in Sarasota. People make all kinds of crafty designs with shells and members create scientific type displays for educating us all on the names and classification of shells. I was impressed.
After speaking with a few people at the show, it turned out they have a shell club, and in the Sarasota Shell club is an artisan group. Oh fun, I thought. My Thursdays are free. I’ll join a shell crafting club, make new friends and take field trips by boat to islands to look for shells.
I signed up and paid my $20 membership that day at the show. The artisan group meets in a church, a 30 minute drive from my house. I had a little trouble finding the room, but once I entered, I was in awe of the number of shells collected. The room was lined with shelves. Labeled clear boxes of every shape and size of seashell and sea glass you could imagine surround the workspace. In a back room, additional supplies are available for creating projects.
The women welcomed me and gave me spot. Apparently the goal of the club is to make crafts to be sold at craft fairs. So I got to work.
With no real guidance, I just started gluing shells to boxes and driftwood I found in the back room. I had always loved the look of shell valentines. I tried a small one in an octagon shape. Not sure they ever sold it, but I enjoyed making it.
After a few weeks, my enthusiasm for making shell projects to sell for the club waned. The other women in the group had shells at home and many sold items on their own in Etsy stores.
My yoga teaching and pickleball schedule got busier and I found myself no longer attending shell club.
But now I had an education. I knew about shells. Some are more valuable and rare than others. Some come in different colors or can be dyed. Shell clubs have fun “field trips” to island where awesome shells can be found but I also got the inside scoop on the best beaches in the area for finding shells!
So, no longer a shell artisan for the club, I was satisfied to simply collect shells and put them in vases.
I had a lot of vases.
Then I thought, maybe I can make something with my shells. Like a design. So I bought a shadow box and made a design. Then I upcycled a box that had been gifted to us with 3 bottles of wine. The wine was gone, so I turned the box into my own “sailor’s valentine”.
I wanted a seahorse and a turtle shell design, so I made them too.
My sister and I went to the beach and watched turtles hatch one weekend. I made a pretty little memory shell project about our trip.
So this year, when the neighborhood asked for anyone interested in participating in the craft fair, I actually signed up!
I emptied, sorted and cleaned all the shells in my vases. My sister joined me at the beach as we looked for scallops, coquinas and whelks. With those shells now cleaned and sorted, I turned my peaceful yoga room into a shell crafter’s paradise.
I ordered a new glue gun, some wood frames, wire wreaths and mineral oil to shine up some shells. I created a Pinterest board and an album in my photos app of all the projects that I found interesting.
The shells flew from my containers into my hands and onto ornaments, shadow boxes, animal shapes and even water bubbles in vases. The glue gun emptied quickly as I joyfully placed the scallops next to the olive and jingle shells for the shadow boxes and larger shapes. The tiny whelks, cockle shells and coquinas organized nicely into small delicate ornaments.
My hidden creative juices ignited and I made all sorts of fun crafts.
So the craft fair is this Wednesday, 3:00-6 here in my community of Lakewood Ranch. I’m excited to share my shell crafts and hope it’s a fun and rewarding experience.
Fingers crossed!!
Sample of crafts I’ve been working on…
